Critically acclaimed novelist appointed as Creative Entrepreneur in Residence
The novelist Tony White, who is best known for his critically acclaimed London-based novel Foxy-T (Faber and Faber) has been appointed Creative Entrepreneur in Residence at King's College London, as part of a programme run by Creativeworks London.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Creativeworks London aims to bring creative people together to explore the issues that impact on London’s creative economy and to facilitate exciting new collaborations. The residency programme was established to enable London-based cultural and creative entrepreneurs to apply for a short research-focused residency with one of Creativeworks London’s partner institutions. The purpose of the residency is to create a competitive, distinct and rare opportunity to work with the research community in the development of new knowledge, ideas, projects, prototypes or approaches.
Alongside his mainstream literary work, Tony White frequently writes about the visual arts, but using fiction rather than the more traditional forms of the essay, review or monograph. His recent novella, Dicky Star and the Garden Rule (Forma) was published alongside a series of works by the artists Jane and Louise Wilson, commissioned to reflect on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
Tony White is also known for exploring the storytelling and distribution opportunities presented by new technologies and platforms. Recent works include Missorts, a permanent GPS-triggered soundwork for the city of Bristol, and Ivy4evr, an interactive SMS-based drama broadcast by Channel 4 and nominated for a BIMA Award by the British Interactive Media Association in 2011. White’s most recent novel, Shackleton's Man Goes South, is published both in paperback format and as a free ebook by the Science Museum.
The residency at King’s College London enables Tony White to pursue a new project in collaboration with Dr Sanja Perovic, senior lecturer in the French Department. White will be working on an authorised literary and critical exploration of a long-standing aspect of the work of British artist Stuart Brisley that has been entirely critically overlooked to date: Brisley’s deployment in works produced since 1973 of the Republican Calendar. This calendar was created by Sylvain Maréchal in 1788 and implemented during the French Revolution. Maréchal was a poet, avant-garde playwright and newspaper editor and his decimal calendar was used by the French government between 1793 to 1805, and briefly by the Paris Commune in 1871. Dr Perovic is the leading researcher in this field, and her groundbreaking book on the subject, The Calendar in Revolutionary France, was recently published by Cambridge University Press.
Tony White commented: 'This residency presents a unique opportunity to explore a hitherto completely neglected aspect of the work of artist Stuart Brisley, and to do so in collaboration with Dr Perovic, the leading expert on the Republican Calendar. Brisley’s use of the Calendar has been a central aspect of a series of durational performances, conducted over a forty year period, that explore the revolutionary potential and synthesis of art and the everyday. Being Creative Entrepreneur in Residence at Kings College London enables me to combine this research and writing with new opportunities to publish, new ways to create platforms for innovative art writing and to share thinking around these ideas.'
Follow Tony White on Twitter: @tony_white_
Tony White's blog: http://pieceofpaperpress.wordpress.com
Image courtesy of Chris Dorley Brown, 2012